Hello again UK

So, time for a new blog I guess!  It’s raining today, therefore the perfect kind of day to snuggle up in a hoodie and spend my free time at the computer!  I think autumn is definitely passing - the brilliant colours from the start of autumn are all getting old and worn and lying on the ground, with the leaves left on the trees looking yellow and old.  It is definitely getting cold now too!  I could see my breath in the air this afternoon when walking between the house and my room.  I have to admit I am getting my hopes up for a white Christmas, even though Linus told me that they don’t always have a white Christmas so there’s no guarantee... Fingers crossed anyway! 

So this will mostly just be my trip to the UK, so fair warning if you don’t really like (straight forward and kinda boring) recounts!   I was there for the entire week from the 25th of last month until last Saturday, while the family were away for the school break.  Did a quick catch up with a couple of different people, and it was so lovely to see them all again!  Also managed to do a couple of things I didn’t get to do when I was actually living in Dundee - namely go up to the Law, and experience the 24hr bakery!

So I was in Dundee first, staying with Jo, which was definitely a throw back to uni and Unilodge days!  It’s amazing how quickly you forget what the student life and shared uni living is like.  Essays, trips to library, and plenty of friends around and time to hang out with them!  It was lovely to catch up, and we decided to spend some time as tourists too, managing to do some stuff neither of us had done!

Jo!

The first of these was a road trip down the Fife Coastal Route in Jo’s Mini.  The day was mostly overcast, but no rain which was nice!  And the scenery was beautiful of course.  We stopped first at tearooms in a little town called Craill, then continued on to Kellie Castle.  It was a beautiful old house, and I’ve put a couple of photos below.  The only weird part was the Halloween decorations they had placed around the house for some function - you would walk into a beautiful old room and then randomly notice a bloody handprint on the mirror or a skeleton sitting on the chair.  Anyway that was our little bit of ‘cultured’ sightseeing for the day.  Then on the way home we stopped in Anstruther for a late lunch/early dinner, and I got to have some delicious Scottish pie :) 

Road trip selfie with the Mini!

Kellie Castle

A shot of the coast

Steak pie!

Saturday night was Jenna’s birthday do, so we went out for some drinks and I got to catch up with some more people, which was nice.  Then Sunday we didn’t really do anything - went shopping, had a nostalgic trip to Nando’s for dinner.  I also finally got to see and sample the 24hr bakery that I always heard about when I was in Dundee, but never actually made it to!  Very exciting moment...  Monday I accompanied Jo on her first trip to Edinburgh, which was really nice.  I would still say Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities - pretty, friendly, not too crowded and everything you could want there.  We walked up to the castle, went to the Elephant House and just went for a bit of a walk around, just keeping it relaxed.  Then Monday night we went to a pub quiz with some friends, and of course had to keep up the tradition of losing!  All good fun though :)

German reunion with Rachel and Jenna!

Jo's first look at Edinburgh Castle!

Tuesday morning I went out for breakfast with Rachel and Borhan before meeting Jo and heading up to the Law for the last little bit of my time in Dundee.  We had planned to get up to see the sunrise from the Law in the morning, and had looked up the predicted time for the sunrise, but when we woke up to go it was already light outside :(  It actually worked out really well though, as it was beautiful and sunny on Tuesday when we did make it up there.  Definitely the nicest view I had seen of Dundee!  

Dundee from the Law

Tuesday afternoon I headed back to Edinburgh to catch a flight to London.  Jo’s parents very kindly had me stay with them Tuesday and Wednesday night, and it was lovely to catch up with them.  Wednesday day I had an awesome time reuniting with Hannah and randomly wandering around London!  Hannah described our wandering as first looking for food then looking for the bathroom, which while technically true, does not sound very exciting.  However it was really nice - we went to the Paddington Bear shop at Paddington Station, walked through St James Park and alongside the Thames, had lunch in a nice little courtyard behind Westminster (which turned out to be right next to a private school judging by all the kids that walked past), walked through a little park next to the Houses of Parliament, explored the Garden Museum, and then finally walked around Covent Garden.  The Garden Museum was probably the best find of the day - in our search for a toilet we stumbled across it, and then ended up looking around as it was some sort of special day and so entry was free.  They also had a cool workshop set-up where kids could make their own garden tools then get photos with them in a big frame they had set up.  Naturally Hannah and I had to get a photo!  Though we didn’t actually make our own tools...

Reunited!

Woohoo tourists!

Garden Museum

Anyway it was really great to catch up with Hannah, despite it being brief, and I’m especially glad that it wasn’t like when we reunited in Dundee - the torn ligament was definitely memorable, but also rather painful!  On Wednesday night I got a call from Dub and Dee, our family friends I was heading to stay with the next day.  I had tried to contact them earlier in the week and had no reply, which it turns out is because they had had no power for almost three days!  There were huge storms in England which I had missed up in Scotland, and apparently a tree had brought the power lines to their town down, which weren’t fixed until Wednesday - the disadvantage to living in a more isolated little town I suppose.  It did make me laugh though when I found the following photo on Facebook right after their call though.

It was lovely to catch up with their family too, if not a bit crazier than I’m normally used to!  With 3 small children I guess their household is never quiet :)  I mostly just hung out while they did their thing.  Jack had a football clinic type thing on which we went and picked him up from - it was very cute and (in my mind at least) very stereotypically English!  It was all kids from 3-6 I think, and they were all very muddy from the football field.  Halloween was also on the Thursday, and I watched Jessica (the baby) for a little bit while everyone was at the alternative-to-Halloween party.  I managed to completely forgot two times when the doorbell rang though that it was Halloween, and had to tell some little kids trick or treating that I didn’t have anything for them.  The second time actually Jack and Alice were home and ran to get the door, and Alice got quite fright when one of the kids had a skeleton mask and suit on!  We did also have a somewhat disastrous shopping trip to Chelmsford - the kids very quickly got tired and were complaining to go home, then when we got to the car we discovered we had a flat tyre and so had to wait about an hour and a half for roadside assistance to come and help us, during which time Jack was very worried about being locked into the car park we were in at the time.  But it was all good fun, and definitely great to see them again in their new house :)

Saturday I headed back to Austria.  Due to the airport I was flying into being really small, I actually got a relatively cheap flight at the very civilised hour of 11am, which was nice.  Though being the weekend, once I got to Germany I then had to wait about two and a half hours for the next train to Bregenz - luckily I had overindulged and bought three magazines while in the UK!  It’s funny how tiring traveling is though - I got home at about 8pm and then woke right up, but then couldn’t get up until about 10am the next day!  I guess the time difference didn’t help either - only an hour, but when you already find it hard to get up anyway, it definitely makes it worse!  

This led to another (small) new adventure though.  Because I hadn’t made it to the church I normally go to, I decided to make the trek to an evening one in a nearby town.  For anyone from Narromine reading this, I would describe the difference between the two churches I’ve been to as this: the morning one I normally go to is much like Narromine Baptist, whereas the evening one in Hohenems was much like what I imagine Generosity church to be like... It was good though, and I met some really nice people who even gave me a lift home, which was a blessing as I was a little nervous about walking around a new place after dark.  It also made me realise I really should make use of my region-wide years ticket and explore some of the neighbouring towns and such more!  It really isn’t that hard to get there, so I don’t really have any excuse!

Anyway, that was my wee holiday in the UK, and I definitely had a lovely time.  I had forgotten just how much I enjoy the UK, aside from their pork sausages and cold sausage rolls!  Now I’m looking ahead to winter, and I think I might be buying a warmer jacket in the near future if it gets much colder!  Also very much looking forward to meeting up with Barbara in Munich to see the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode as well as Catching Fire - our little weekend of nerdiness! - as well as hopefully catching up with Dorea when she’s in Switzerland.  Also, though I am as disorganised as ever, roll on Christmas!  And that’s me for now, til next time :)